~Tuesday~ I was running around at the last minute before walking to the bus stop looking for my small black Totes umbrella, which was nowhere to be found. I ended up having to take my big-ass red-and-white IBM umbrella, which I’m surprised isn’t blue-and-white, but which works well at NC State since its colors are red-and-white.
Traveling on the bus on Gorman Street in the correct direction, from down the street, I saw the wife of My Three Sons sitting on the bus stop bench in her burka, but upon pulling up there was only His Two Sons. The father nor the baby was there, and none of them got on the bus. I guess they sit there and wait for a school bus, too. I don’t know. I was nonplussed.
The person at the next stop took forever to get his money out and put it in the fare machine. Grey matter builder: What’s something that you could be doing during the five or ten minutes you’re waiting for the bus? Wait! Wait! Don’t tell me!
A man sat across from me who was fairly decent looking—couldn’t go as far as calling him handsome, and he was just shy of sexy, but he had big strong hands that enveloped a Cherry 7-Up can. His hair was such an absolute knotted mess, though, after confirming the absence of hatchlings up in there, I immediately wondered if he was on his way to Great Clips for a haircut.
My work day was non-stop today with two meetings—one at the beginning of the day and one at the end of the day.
Tonight I was the dinner guest of two fairly new friends and wonderful people, Chad & Suzanne. I met @chadkmiller through @hughlh on Twitter, and I met his wife Suzanne at Hugh’s wedding.
Just before I left my house, I hand-wrote directions to their house from Google maps, forgetting to write down the house number at the end of (or anywhere on) the directions. Arriving on their street on a dark rainy night, and not knowing their cars, I drove up to the one I thought it was, as it was one of the few on the cul-de-sac with its lights on and front door open behind a storm door.
Up on the front porch, and just before I rang the doorbell, the woman of the house (presumably) walked by holding a basket of laundry, and it so wasn’t Suzanne. Fortunately she didn’t look over to see a strange man looking in her front door, and the head of her husband (presumably) didn’t come out from behind the newspaper he was reading on the couch either. I’m guessing there was no dog about the house.
I looked across the street to the other house with the front door open behind a glass storm door, and I pulled in there. As I did, Chad appeared at the door. Yay! Lucy was very happy to see me (and my crotch, truth be told), but she was a sweet dog who was very easy to love. She was a rescue that had been shot in the face and had run up about $20,000 in vet bills before they adopted her. Drives me crazy to imagine how anyone could shoot a dog in the face.
We had a great dinner of baked chicken, green beans, and roasted potatoes, and a most delightful dessert of sorbet with chocolate covered pretzels along side of it, which we capped off with a bottle of sweet, dessert wine.
We had great conversation all evening long, and I loved hearing their stories about teaching. It’s a great comfort to know that we have some committed, loving, and open-minded teachers in the world—both encouraging and challenging their kids.
We talked about a wide range of topics during the night, many of them about things that mattered. Here are some that come to mind:
- Books (Suzanne’s book, my aborted book, Big Machine, Bad Monkeys, What You Have Left)
- Writing
- The writing process
- Pitching your book with confidence
- Caring what other people think (or not)
- Self-confidence
- Faith
- Being gay
- Being mistaken for being gay
- As a child learning what it means to be gay
- Knowing gay people growing up
- Knowing gay people who had AIDS
- Conservatism in parents
- Growth in relationships with parents
- Strict childhoods
- Wild childhoods
- Colleges (liberal vs. conservative)
- Coming out to a wife
- Being saved in a bathroom
- Tattoos
- Reminders of faith
- Selling yourself and your work
- Working where your heart is
- Living where your heart is
- My 2003 AIDS Ride, the training journal I kept
- Moving to downtown Raleigh
- First Friday gallery walks
- Feeling and looking old
- Exercising
and much more…
Thank you my two friends for a most enjoyable evening of good food, good fun, and good people.